


Let the Fire Somehow Get In

by Snow



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Octopus, the concept is crack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-29
Updated: 2010-12-29
Packaged: 2017-10-14 04:58:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/145617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snow/pseuds/Snow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: "Simm!Master is turned into an octopus. Eleven does the only sensible thing and puts him in a tank and hand feeds him crab meat."</p><p>Rory's PoV.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let the Fire Somehow Get In

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wrabbit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wrabbit/gifts).



> Betaed by the lovely Fox.

"What is this, then, Doctor?" Amy is leaning over a desk, and Rory can't see anything around her other than the desk itself. Not that the desk would necessarily be his first choice of focus, but he is aware it's there, and that she's blocking his view of it with her much-preferable-to-a-desk-anyway behind. And unless she's looking at something smaller than a postcard, it must be the desk itself which has caught her interest. It's mahogany and looks ordinary enough - if a pain to move - but then again they _are_ in the TARDIS, and nothing there is as it seems.

The Doctor leans over, snatching a business-card-sized piece of paper off the desk to look at it himself. "Nothing at all."

"Is it from River?" Amy coos.

The Doctor snorts. "Maybe." Meaning no, obviously not, though the Doctor doesn't seem to really know what's up when it comes to River.

"Who is it from then?" Rory asks.

The Doctor considers, flipping the card over to examine the back, which is, as far as Rory can tell, completely blank, before he stiffens. He only holds himself still for a moment, before he's all energy again, tucking the card into his pocket and bounding towards the engine room. "How would you like to see Paris, Amy, Rory?" he shouts back, as they hurry to catch up with him.

Rory pauses just inside the main room, with the navigation, and glances at Amy, who shrugs. He knows she loves the idea of Paris but she's sure she can get the Doctor to offer her something better.

"See the rings of Saturn? Ooh, or a nice romantic getaway to Prexiye Three?"

"Romantic getaway?" Amy lifts an eyebrow, and Rory walks to stand beside her. "Abandoning us again, then?"

"Newlyweds like to spend time together, right?" The Doctor pauses, but not long enough to allow Amy to answer, let alone Rory. "Lepaq Seven is absolutely gorgeous, you'll love the sunsets, and the food is amazing."

Amy laughs, high and delighted. Rory only spends a moment wishing he could make her laugh like that, before he remembers that he does, all the time. "Fine, we'll let you drop us off somewhere wonderful and collect us when your errands are done," she says. "Just know that if we end up in mortal danger and you don't perform a rescue in time, I'll be very upset."

The Doctor nods, already spinning navigational controls. He must really want them gone. "Understood."

* * *

Rory would be hard-pressed to find anything about their vacation objectionable, what with the lack of death and the opportunity to have quite a lot of alone time with Amy in a location unusual enough to keep her content for the time they have.

When the Doctor picks them up he's acting decidedly shifty, though Rory doesn't feel any need to comment on it. Amy either chooses to also let it go or to confront the Doctor in private. Rory would bet everything he owns on the latter, particularly when the Doctor knocks on the door of their room and enters with the air of conceding an argument. "It's absolutely none of your business," he says.

Rory nods, but Amy shakes her head, lips pursed. "You said whatever it was could pose a very real threat to us, and to you."

"Not at the moment," the Doctor replies. "At the moment he's fairly contained."

"What sort of a threat?" Rory asks.

The Doctor glances away, drumming his fingers absently on the wall he's leaning against. "The kind that has a very real chance of wiping out all of humanity. Maybe."

Rory nods, wearing a fake smile. "So, nothing serious? Good to know."

"He's not in a state to be much of a threat at the moment," the Doctor snaps, after letting the pause grow.

Amy manages concerned so much better than Rory does, and she also seems to understand the situation much better. "How badly is he hurt?"

The Doctor lets out an elaborate sigh. "Hurt isn't the right word at all. Come along." And then he's headed out and Rory is following Amy, who's following the Doctor.

Amy stops just inside the door, glancing at a giant fish tank with an octopus inside, that seems tiny by comparison with its surroundings.

The Doctor shrugs apologetically. "It was the largest size the TARDIS could make."

Rory doesn't really have words, but Amy always does. "That's an octopus," she says. "In a tank." She's obviously taking the fact the octopus is a threat seriously though, skirting around the edges of the room as she looks at the pale orange creature.

"He's the Master," the Doctor explains. "The last Timelord other than myself. Not quite sure why he's an octopus, but I'm sure at some point I'll figure it out."

"As well as how to turn him back?"

The Doctor looks so very torn. "I'm not sure that would be the right thing to do," he says eventually, when Rory is about to come up with some change in conversation that would save him from having to answer Amy's question. "But I'm not sure I could not, if I knew."

The octopus comes closer, all the way up to glass of the tank, and hangs there in the water.

"Octopodes are considered extremely intelligent, when compared to most Earth-based lifeforms," the Doctor says sadly. "But even as an octopus he's leagues ahead of...even what most other Timelords were."

"What are you doing for now?" Amy asks. "Just keeping him in a cage?"

The Doctor nods. "And hand feeding him crab meat. He's accepting it, though, which, if he has any actual consciousness left, would mean he doesn't hate me for doing so. He's never been above hurting himself because he knows it hurts me more."

"Not actually a current threat to our safety, then?" Rory asks.

"No," the Doctor says. "And that's clearly not right."

Clearly the Doctor needs to be left to mope some more, and possibly...feed his...octopus more crab meat. Right. "Amy and I were kind of in the middle of something," Rory says. "We'll just get back to that."

"No we weren't," Amy replies.

Rory grins at her. "We could be, though."

**Author's Note:**

> I welcome and appreciate comments, including constructive criticism.


End file.
